Chapter 206: Second Battle at Ruxukou

Luoyang has also put some thought into dealing with the current situation.

At the suggestion of Zuo Pushe Xue Chu, Murong Chao agreed and an imperial edict was sent from Luoyang along the Yellow River to Qingzhou.

Recruit the Wagang Army to participate in the battle to suppress the Wei rebellion!
A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The Wagang Army occupied Qingzhou for about two years, and in the 13th year of Tiansheng, they also participated in the campaign to expel the Huns from Hebei.

However, this time the imperial court actually summoned them to go to Yuzhou to participate in the war against Western Wei.

This is indeed somewhat unexpected.

The imperial edict was sent all the way to the governor's office in Linzi, Qingzhou. After receiving the imperial edict, Zhai Rang immediately asked the chief secretary Yang Sui, the military officer Cui Xiaotong, the general Xu Maogong and his brother Zhai Hong to come and discuss the matter.

"What is the imperial court thinking? They actually want us to help them suppress the rebellion? Isn't this a conspiracy? They want to frame our Wagang Army?"

Zhai Hong has never been a person who can keep calm, so he opened his mouth and directly expressed his doubts.

Yang Sui and Cui Xiaotong, two resourceful men, shook their heads one after another. Xu Maogong said, "The Great Yan court is no longer what it used to be. Now, in order to deal with Western Yan in Guanzhong and Western Wei in Jingzhou, the military strength is somewhat dwarfed. Don't you see that places like Yanzhou and Xuzhou, which are close to Qingzhou, have only more than 10,000 people stationed there, so you know that their military strength is insufficient."

Yang Sui also echoed, "General Xu is right. General Duan Yihong led a large army into Tongguan. Changsha King Murong Deyu led tens of thousands of troops to fight against the Western Wei in Ye County. Li Yuanhui in Jianghuai also has to guard against Cao Yuanjing in Jiangdong and has no time to look north. The troops of Lou Jushi and others in Yuzhou are not sufficient and are also pinned down by the Western Wei's detachment. As a result, there are not many troops that can be mobilized. Although the border troops of Jizhou and Youzhou are elite and good at fighting, they need to guard against the Turks and Tuoba Yuqing in Bingzhou."

Zhai Rang understood after hearing this, "That means that the Luoyang court has no one available at the moment, so they thought of us?"

"But it is."

When Zhai Hong heard that no one was available, he said excitedly, "No one is available? Hahaha, that's perfect. We will rise up in rebellion. In my opinion, we can send a large army along the Yellow River to attack Luoyang directly!"

Zhai Hong spoke excitedly, but he soon found that no one agreed with him.

".Is it impossible for what I said to work?"

Yang Sui said: "General Zhai, this is a different time. Before we accepted the amnesty from the court in Luoyang, we rebelled because of the tyranny of the previous emperor. After the death of the previous emperor, we accepted the amnesty from the current emperor. Now everyone is enjoying peace and there is no need to fight. If we still rebel against the current emperor with the past events, we will lose our righteous cause. Even if we go straight to Luoyang, the world will not submit to us. Instead, our Wagang righteous army will become the target of public criticism."

Cui Xiaotong also said: "What Yang Changshi said is very true. Since Zhai Gong has become a minister of Dayan, we might as well respond to the court's request and send troops to help in the war to support Zhai Gong's hopes."

After listening to this, Zhai Rang finally understood the purpose of Yang Sui and Cui Xiaotong asking him to send troops.

Being able to accept good advice is a valuable quality for those in power.

Zhai Rang issued an order, appointing Xu Maogong as the main general and Jia Xiong as the deputy, to supervise six generals, namely Yang Kan, Zhai Sixun, Murong Sanzang, Cheng Zhijie, Huang Junhan, and Qin Bogui, a total of eight troops, with a total of more than 30,000 people.

He sent troops to Yuzhou to assist General Lou Jushi in the battle.

In the past year, Qingzhou had almost no wars, and during this year, the Wagang rebel army also completed its transformation.

The previous 200,000-strong army was reorganized into more than 100,000 young and strong men.

The rest also went to farm.

After a year of training and running-in, it can now be regarded as an elite force.

Wagang was able to reap the benefits from two rounds of dividends.

The remnants of Yang Xun's failed rebellion and the remnants of Murong Xuan's rebellion all defected to Wagang.

These two large groups of talent dividends directly led to a rapid improvement in the management, governance, and technical and tactical levels of the Wagang Army.

In addition, there have been no large-scale battles in the territories of Qingzhou and several counties of Yanzhou in the past year or so.

Big bandits like Wang Bozhong in the Qi and Lu areas have already led their troops to join the Wagang, and the rest of the bandits who were causing trouble have been almost wiped out.

This also allowed the people in the Wagang Army's territory to recuperate over the past year or so, which is equivalent to the hematopoietic mechanism starting to work again.

Last year, some counties in Yanzhou and the entire Yuzhou still had to send a large amount of money and food to the front lines in Luoyang and Jingzhou. The situation continued to deteriorate. This was also the fundamental reason why Yuzhou gradually deteriorated from a small-scale civil uprising to a rebellion involving three counties and dozens of cities.

The situation in You and Ji states in Hebei is very similar.

Because of the Turkic invasion the previous year, the two states of You and Ji were exempted from taxes for three years.

Although huge casualties and losses were caused at that time, the vitality of You and Ji states recovered very quickly because they did not have to pay taxes.

In other words, the one million people in Luoyang City have become a huge burden, and have now dragged down Yuzhou and Yanzhou.

There were actually some disturbances in Xuzhou, but the few sparks were put out by Governor Pei Minzhi as soon as they appeared, and no large-scale unrest occurred.

But it is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution. If the root cause is not changed, Xuzhou will be in trouble sooner or later.

After all, that place gave birth to powerful men like Emperor Gaozu of Han and King Overlord of Chu, so there was never a shortage of people who dared to cause trouble.

Xu Maogong and Jia Xiong led more than 30,000 troops and horses, following the large ships of the Qingzhou navy. Their route was to go straight up the Yellow River, all the way to the intersection of the Cai River, enter the hinterland of Yuzhou through the Cai River, land at Ruyang at the intersection of the Cai River and the Ying River, and travel by land to Pingyu.

People in Luoyang were also very nervous.

However, after hearing the news that Wagang had sent troops, the court was still quite excited.

Only a handful of people shook their heads at this news.

Among them were Grand Tutor Duan Shihuan, Secretary of the Central Secretariat Li Xiaoyan, and General Li Shenfu, who had been laid off and stripped of his military power.

Prince of Wei Murong Xianzong also felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong for a while.

For such a major event, the news will spread far and wide very quickly.

In May, the water levels of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers rose, and the Wei army was ready to move.

Li Yuanhui personally went to Ruxuwu to take charge, and a report was quickly delivered to the central military tent in Ruxuwu via Chaohu Lake.

"Are you crazy? You dare to call up the soldiers from Wagang? Isn't this telling the world that you are terminally ill?"

After reading the letter, Li Yuanhui felt mixed emotions.

The Eastern Yan court has openly declared that its strength has declined to the point where it needs to rely on the Wagang Army, which it had been wary of before.

They were also allowed to enter the heartland of Yuzhou.

Considering the current situation in Yuzhou, with weeds everywhere and foxes and rabbits everywhere, and the combat effectiveness of each army is not up to par.

If the Wagang Army sees the real situation, will they still be in awe of the Luoyang court?
Li Yuanhui slapped the letter on the table. Before he had time to think about it, he heard the sound of drums outside, followed by a long horn sound.

This was a warning, indicating that the Eastern Wei army had begun to land.

Li Yuanhui was not wearing any armor. He walked out of the hall wearing a light fur coat and went straight to the wall of the dock.

A moment later, the generals and staff in the city quickly gathered on the observation tower on the dock wall, waiting for Governor Li to give orders.

Looking into the distance, there were countless large and small warships on the river, as far as the eye could see, probably hundreds of them.

On one of the five-toothed ships, the flag of the Eastern Wei emperor was flying high.

On the ship's deck, Cao Yuanjing was also gazing at Ruxuwu in the distance. Behind him also gathered a large number of Jiangdong civil and military officials.

A young talent who is as calm as a mountain and a middle-aged hero who is brave and fierce.

The Battle of Ruxukou was staged for the second time.

(End of this chapter)